The Black Hand (Strasbourg)
The Black Hand ( French La Main Noire ) was a Strasbourg resistance group founded in September 1940 and led by Marcel Weinum . Most of its 25 members were between 14 and 18 years old. Some of them belonged to the boys' choir of the Strasbourg cathedral. Almost all of them were apprentices and came from the working class. In most cases, they acted without their parents' consent. Due to the annexation of Alsace, almost all of them were forced to be members of the Hitler Youth .
This resistance group, which was founded without the help of an adult, was divided into several separate cells and owned weapons and premises. She specialized in counter-propaganda, sabotage and espionage for the British Embassy.
Marcel Weinum and nine comrades were brought before a Strasbourg special court in March 1942 . The head of the group was sentenced to death and beheaded on April 14, 1942 in Stuttgart.
history
Since October 1940, the Black Hand has been painting crosses of Lorraine and patriotic slogans on many Strasbourg walls. From November, the organization sabotaged railway facilities and broadcasting stations of the Wehrmacht , robbed parked German cars, stabbed tires and seized weapons, papers and petrol vouchers.
In December 1940, the Black Hand began to throw grenades at shop windows, behind which there was a photo or a bust of Adolf Hitler . As a result, several traders preferred to risk a heavy fine rather than having a shattered shop window. The group rummaged in the abandoned fortifications of the Maginot Line and found all kinds of ammunition - cartridges , grenades and dynamite , which they hid near their parents' homes.
In 1941 Marcel Weinum rented an apartment which he financed with the money from burglaries in several offices of Nazi organizations. With his typewriter he wrote leaflets that were scattered on the streets, thrown in mailboxes, stuck to walls and even sent to some German personalities by mail.
In April 1941, Marcel Weinum and Lucien Entzmann found an inventory of ammunition in a military facility. On May 8, 1941, around 10 p.m., Marcel Weinum and Albert Uhlrich each threw a grenade on the windshield of the official car of Gauleiter Robert Wagner , which was parked between Kleberplatz and Studentenplatz. The car was completely destroyed and the Gauleiter, head of civil administration in Alsace , who was in a café, narrowly escaped certain death.
Marcel Weinum and Ceslav Sieradzki were arrested at the Swiss border on May 20, 1941 when they tried to get to Basel to ask for money from the British embassy to continue the fight against National Socialism. The entire group was arrested in July and several members of the Black Hand were sent to the Schirmeck-Vorbruck security camp .
On the morning of December 12, 1941, Ceslav Sieradzki was also brought to Schirmeck . On the same day, Albert Uhlich saw his comrade being beaten by the kapos . He testifies that the young man shouted "Vive la France!" ("Long live France!") Under the blows. A few hours later it was announced over the loudspeaker that Ceslav Sieradzki had been shot "for resistance". It was the first time that the Nazis used the word "resistance" in Alsace. The Polish orphan was the first Alsatian resistance fighter to die for France. He was shot in the neck without trial .
Ten members of the Black Hand were tried on March 27, 1942 in a special court in Strasbourg. Marcel Weinum was sentenced to death and beheaded on April 14, 1942 in Stuttgart . All others were sentenced to prison terms. Some of them were released after a while and taken to the Reich Labor Service . The 14 boys, who were not subjected to a trial, found out about Marcel Weinum's beheading in Schirmeck. Twelve of them were released and also drafted into the Reich Labor Service.
Members of the Black Hand
- Marcel Weinum
- Albert Adam
- Lucien Albrecht
- Jean-Jacques Bastian
- Robert Bildstein
- Lucien Entzmann
- Marcel Keller
- René Kleinmann
- André Kleinmann
- Jean Kuntz
- Charles Lebold
- Aimé Martin
- Bernard Martz
- André Mathis
- René Meyer
- François Mosser
- Xavier Nicole
- Ceslav Sieradzki
- René Spengler
- Albert Uhlrich
- Jean Voirol
The memory of the black hand
The book Marcel Weinum et la Main Noire , written by Gérald Pfister, was published in October 2007 with a foreword by Pierre Sudreau , President of the Resistance Foundation (Fondation de la Résistance) and an introduction by Alfred Grosser . It brought the now almost forgotten resistance group back to the public eye.
This publication is largely based on the valuable documents and eyewitness reports of René Kleinmann, who died in 2009, a close friend of Marcel Weinum and, together with his brother André, one of the first members of the Black Hand . Much is also due to the many years of research that Marie Brassart-Georg, journalist at the Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace , carried out, particularly with regard to the memory of Ceslav Sieradzki.
The five survivors of the Black Hand received the city's medal of honor in November 2007 from the President of the Strasbourg Municipal Association, Robert Grossmann . Jean-Jacques Bastian was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor .
In the same year Robert Grossmann decided to put a plaque on a wall of the Collège Saint-Etienne in Strasbourg. This was inaugurated in 2008 by the newly elected mayor Roland Ries .
Filmography
A 52 minute long documentary was made in 2010 under the title La Main Noire by Jean-Baptiste Frappat (authors: Jean-Baptiste Frappat and Daniel Psenny) based on the book by Gerard Pfister Marcel Weinum et la Main Noire . It was co-produced by JEM Productions and France 3 Alsace with the support of the Alsace region.
literature
- Gérard Pfister (ed.): Marcel Weinum et la Main Noire , with a dedication by Pierre Sudreau, President of the Resistance Foundation, a foreword by Alfred Grosser and an introduction by Marie Brassart-Goerg Texts by Marcel Weinum, Jean-Jacques Bastian, René Kleinmann, Aimé Martin and Albert Uhlrich, Éditions Arfuyen, Paris-Orbey, 2007, ISBN 978-2-84590-109-4 .
- A chapter on the resistance organization La Main Noire can be found in the book by Roger Faligot, La Rose et l'Edelweiss, ces ados qui combattaient le nazisme, 1933–1945 , Éditions La Découverte, Paris, 2009, ISBN 978-2-7071-5420 -0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Vonau, Jean-Laurent,: Le Gauleiter Wagner: le bourreau de l'Alsace . La Nuée Bleue, 2011, ISBN 978-2-7165-0788-2 .